Along Vestry Street, in the TriBeCa landmark district, people are exposed to a vast variety of facades. Over the years, the district has evolved from textile trade, artists’ warehouses, and, now, booming residences. Archi-Tectonics’s 33 Vestry Street, a high-end residential building, unifies the historically varying building-fronts via a pixilated facade.

The design team generated numerous pixilation patterns by overlaying Vestry Street’s varying facade levels. The resulting, pixilation pattern is comprised of translucent stone and glass, which creates varying facade conditions throughout a day’s course. During the day, the facade has an interior effect; the translucent stone allows light into the building. And, at night, the facade has an exterior effect; the translucent stone glows on the outside.

As one of Archi-Tectonics’s many Smart Skins, the V33 building’s facade meets historically contextual demands while introducing technological and environmental innovation. In the V33 building, the innovation lies in the materials. The facade’s materials include translucent stone, engineered by Archiglaze, insulated double glazing windows, and stone-aluminum, solid panels. These irradiating materials give a performative purpose to the strategically conforming facade pattern.

Along the south facade, double height spaces house sunrooms and cantilever into vast outdoor spaces. Inside, floors and ceilings fold— differentiating programs without fully enclosing spaces. For necessarily intimate spaces, double height ceilings scoop across the open plan and lower at the north facade.